Eddie Cantor starred in producer Florenz Ziegfeld’s musical Kid Boots which opened on Broadway on December 31, 1923 and ran to February 21, 1925. The music for the show was written by Harry Tierney and Joe McCarthy. However, during the show’s run the song “Dinah” by Sam M. Lewis, Joe Young and Harry Akst was added to the finale and sung by Cantor, becoming the hit of the show. But it was vocalist Ethel Waters who is responsible for popularizing the tune. She is often credited with introducing it because she performed it in a nightclub show from 1925, Plantation Revue, and the tune took off like wildfire the next year with her recording reaching the second spot in the charts:

The Plantation Revue, staged at the Plantation Club at Broadway and 50th Streets in New York, had been featuring the popular actress Florence Mills. But during the summers Mills would tour, leaving the oppressive heat and humidity of New York behind. The owners of the Plantation planned a new show for the summer, auditioning and hiring vocalist/actress Ethel Waters as the star. Waters’ autobiography, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, tells the tale regarding how “Dinah” came to be in the show.

Songwriters Joe Young and Harry Akst brought her the number, playing it for her at a bright tempo. Waters asked if that was the way they expected her to do it. Surprised, they said, “Why not sing it your way?” Waters took the tune home and worked on it with her accompanist, creating a moving version at a much slower tempo, similar to the approach she would use for a blues. She sang the song for both songwriters and producer Sam Salvin and landed the role.

When Florence Mills returned in the fall of 1925, Waters worked for a short time with a traveling version of the Plantation Revue. The next year she was hired for the show Africana, where she introduced the tune “I’m Coming, Virginia” and reprised her hit from 1925, “Dinah.”

The collaboration of Waters with composer Akst was responsible for another hit, “Am I Blue,” from 1929 which became Waters’ first number one recording.

Bing Crosby’s 1932 recording paired him with the newly formed singing group the Mills Brothers. Crosby had recorded with them briefly as part of a medley of music from the show George White’s Scandals. Bing liked the group and wanted to record with them, but the conservative management of Brunswick Records would undoubtedly have nixed the idea. So Bing slyly showed up during a Mills Brothers recording session and had the engineers make a “test” recording for his own use. A short time later Crosby played the test for the Brunswick execs, who realized how good it was and released it on the flip side of Crosby’s version of “Can’t We Talk it Over.” It soared to number one, the first such hit for the Mills Brothers. It was possibly the first time an African-American vocal group had been recorded with a white singer, and to quote the great clarinetist Artie Shaw, “Bing Crosby...was the first hip white person in American.”

This section suggests definitive or otherwise significant recordings that will help jazz students get acquainted with
“Dinah.” These recordings have been selected from the Jazz History and
CD Recommendations sections.

Vocalist Ethel Waters was the first to make a major impact with “Dinah,” thanks to her classic 1925 recording of the song (An Introduction to Ethel Waters). Another approach can be heard in the hugely popular 1931 rendition by Bing Crosby with the Mills Brothers (Jazz Singer 1931-1941). Among the many significant instrumental versions, we can hear a little bit of everything in Pee Wee Russell’s all-star performance from 1938 (His Best Recordings).

The “Dinah” lyrics were typical, southern-belle, Tin Pan Alley fodder. The verse tells us “Carolina brought us ‘Dinah’,” and then the chorus explains how wonderful she is with her “Dixie eyes blazing,” then how one would “wander to China” or “hop an ocean liner” to be with “Dinah Lee.” Chris Tyle

Musical analysis of “Dinah”

Original Key

Ab major - tonal shift to relative minor in “B”

Form

A1 - A2 - B - A3

Tonality

“A” is major throughout; “B” is minor.

Movement

“A” is built on a rising and falling pentatonic scale; three-note rising chromatic run into “B” based on a “Charleston” figure built on an interval of a major descending third.

Harmonically, this tune is simple; “A” goes from I to V7 and back, with a I - iii°7 - ii7 - V7 turnaround at the end of the first “A” and a plagal (IV - I or “amen” cadence) at the end of “A2.” “B” is really the minor variation of the same, but there are some descending and ascending embellishments that add harmonic interest and facilitate the modulation back into the major key.

K. J. McElrath - Musicologist for JazzStandards.com

Check out K. J. McElrath’s book of Jazz Standards Guide Tone Lines at his web site (www.bardicle.com).

Louis Armstrong’s version from 1930 is a tour-de-force, giving us a brief, three-minute glimpse of what his extended live versions must have been like. There’s also a splendid film version of Armstrong from 1933 in Copenhagen, his first film appearance.

(3 paragraphs including the following types of information: music analysis and performers.)

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Neither Bing Crosby nor the Mills Brothers tend to be the first names mentioned when discussing jazz vocalists, but this version of “Dinah,” in addition to being historically significant, is exceptionally swinging!

With his Quintette du Hot Club de France, featuring the great violin of Stephane Grappelli, guitarist Reinhardt offers up some of his most creative and authoritative playing on this version of “Dinah.”

Clarinetist Goodman plays wonderfully on this quartet version of Dinah, as do drummer Gene Krupa and pianist Teddy Wilson. However, the spotlight belongs to vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, who takes a long and very impressive solo.

Clarinetist Russell was associated with early jazz, recorded this song during the swing era, and as was typical of his career, produced era-defying results. His playing is wonderful, as is that of his all-star band, including Dicky Wells on trombone, James P. Johnson on piano and Freddie Green, who takes full advantage of a rare soloing opportunity on guitar.

“Dinah” hasn’t been a frequently recorded tune in the post-bop era, but a notable exception to this can be found on this solo piano recording, as Monk combines his characteristic angularity with his stride roots.

Waters sets an early standard that would be almost impossible to match. Hers is simply one of the finest vocal renditions of this song. Her powerful voice, over the top of a lazy swing tempo, allows her a bluesy reading that renders the wonderful lyrics with precision.